Oh no! It’s an AL-steroid!
It’s Monday again, so time for another look back at the madcap madness that is parodist extraordinaire Weird Al Yankovic! The Top 30 Weird Al Parodies countdown continues! The carbon dating tests we did on today’s ancient artifact sealed in amber tells us it’s 30 years old and from the Nineties Era…
#23. “Jurassic Park” – (Parody of “MacArthur Park” – Richard Harris)
Just in time to remind me of the 30th anniversary of my high school graduation next Sunday, we wind the clock back to the prehistoric year of 1993. A time before everyone and their mother-in-law had cell phones, the internet, and fifty social media accounts to keep track of. A time that seems about as ancient as…… well, dinosaurs were to the people of the early 90’s. But the cavemen and cavewomen of 1993 had the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park to remind them of the days when giant reptiles roamed the earth…
Well, and this purple clown.
When our hero Weird Al Yankovic decided to write a parody of the phenomenon that was Jurassic Park (a franchise which continues to be much more popular than my blog, even today), he revisited a prehistoric era himself. Goddman fucking prog rock. That hellish time in the annals of FM radio history when the average song was about nine minutes and change long and contained several uncalled for segues to the local symphony orchestra, which absolutely nobody listens to the radio for.
Lucky for us, when Weird Al chose to turn Richard Harris’ “MacArthur Park” into a “Jurassic Park” parody, he shaved about four minutes off that waste of 8-track tape to keep us from falling asleep halfway through…
YAY! A Weird Al video that actually embeds! Enjoy the claymation dinosaur shenanigans…
This is the third parody already in this countdown featuring Weird Al recounting the plot of a then-current movie over an established song. And (spoiler alert) it will also be the last one we’ll see. While “MacArthur Park” was an obvious fit “Jurassic Park,” it was kinda bold on Weird Al’s part to not only choose a song that was already 25 years old at the time, but one that no classic rock station would touch due to its length… making it a largely a memory only Weird Al’s older fans would have. I was 18 at the time and had never heard of the original… and in fact, it wasn’t until the brief disco revival at the turn of the millennium that I’d even heard Donna Summer’s cover for the first time.
Not even disco could save “MacArthur Park” from being a turd.
Alright, pop quiz! Which country in the world embraced Weird Al’s “Jurassic Park” the most? America, right? Of course not. MTV, in the middle of its “Buzz Clips” era, pretty much yanked the video for this song out of their rotation after a few days… keeping it from getting the exposure it needed to be big here.
So where did “Jurassic Park” not only become a huge favorite, but even a Top 5 hit?
Don’t wanna be a Canadian idiot… (That’s another Weird Al parody, not an insult!)
Yep, Canada! The land of Celine Dion and Justin Bieber. Go figure, eh?
More of the Weird Al countdown next Monday!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
love the video… ir rminds me a little of Buster if someone sticks under the hoof of a dino LOL
Buster would be under the foot of a dinosaur who in turn got smashed by an asteroid…
Some of Weird Al’s best!
That was cute. A nice way to start off the week. I would live to see this in Ray Harryhausen stop action animation.
I had to look that name up (yes, I really did). And yes, it would be fun to see this video with that type of animation. I wish I could recreate it for Shelf Critter Theatre…
This is really fun to watch! Great job of spoofing the movie, and I like the song much better that the original. 🙂
The sound of paint drying is better than the original!
hah! true 🙂
Well at least it’s not 7 minutes long. 😈
The dinosaurs made sure that didn’t happen…
I graduated in 1992, which makes me an older dinosaur than you! *raspberries* Na na na na na.
What was it like in your one room schoolhouse, Gramma?
It smelt of unwashed genitals…
Oh, just like my regular high school then!
Pretty much, young man!
Did I miss a na? Damn it!
That was a BLAST! Thanks for that.
Absolutely!
I don’t recognise the (original) song, but I loved the video!
You’re not missing out on anything with regards to the original…
Another one that passed me by from the past other than I know the “original” song – but I do love claymation and that one was fun to watch!!
Pam
I didn’t know he did this one either because it was in the middle of my modern music blackout period. And I guess because I don’t live in Canada…